Everyone in NINJAGO City is talking about the new movie: 'Clutch Powers: A Musical Life'. Jay and Zane find it weird that Clutch breaks out in song and dance. Not reality - very unpredictable. But maybe that is the only way to defeat a villain that knows your every move.... to do something unpredictable..[2]
Plot
Gayle Gossip is seen reporting on a musical premiere, called Clutch Powers: A Musical Life. Clutch Powers, holding the Teapot of Tyrahn, then takes the microphone from her and begins to talk about his musical. He wishes that everybody in Ninjago would come to see his movie; a puff of smoke appears and Nadakhan's theme is played for a moment. It then cuts to Zane and Jay talking about how the musical was horrible and confusing. Jay and Zane pose for photographs. Zane asks to go back to the monastery, but Jay declines, saying that the best part of a movie premiere is the after party. However, they get a call that there was a break-in at the museum. Reflectra is then seen stealing art. Jay and Zane bust in. Jay begs Reflectra to give up because he wants to make it to the after party, worried that it will be full if they delay, and asks Reflectra who she is. She introduces herself and kicks a computer at the two ninja. Zane and Jay attempt to use their elements to defeat her, but she reflects it back at them with diamond-shaped spinjitzu. They try to beat her with Spinjitzu, but she reflects that away as well. Reflectra remarks that she has studied the ninja's movements. Consequently, Zane and Jay break out into song and dance to defeat her because it's new and unexpected. In the end, the duo emerge victorious and Jay points out that they need to make sure Clutch never finds out about this before setting his sights on making the after party.
If canon, this short would probably take place close to but before The Island, as after The Island, the ninja would have been too upset with Clutch Powers and closer to Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu, Clutch Powers would have been too injured.
In 2019, Tommy Andreasen noted the idea of a Ninjago musical, stating that it was possible with the new format the show had created from Season 11 onward.[3] This idea was realized with this episode.
This is the second short in the series to be animated by WildBrain.
This is the only short that does not have footage in the Ninjago: Reimagined trailer.
The day before this short's release, Tommy Andreasen tweeted the title card and the phrase, "... tomorrow ... something extravagant."[4]
The name of the title of the short is likely a reference to the film series "Sweatin' to the Oldies".
The title card uses a television trope in which the name of the episode appears in the sky, then transitions to the ground.
Powers' line "I work alone" during the musical number style fight with Reflectra is a reference to his oft-repeated motto from The Adventures of Clutch Powers.
Additionally, it was the title of a song used in the opening and closing credits.[5]
According to Tommy Andreasen the "part of the idea behind Clutch Powers having self produced, funded, directed and starred in a vanity project was based off a conversation I had with" the artist Joshua Deck.[6]
The animation style used in the short is the same as in the show, but it's given a layer to make it appear two-dimensional. It's therefore similar to the Hidden Side animation.
This is the first short that is animated in very similar style to the show. The second is "Golden Hour."
Clutch's white tuxedo torso design comes from one of the Indiana Jones minifigure variants from the LEGO theme of the same name.
This is the second time a version of Clutch Powers has used a torso from Indiana Jones, as Clutch in his original movie used the main brown jacket torso design of the character.
hood. This is because an FS hood indicates a character is using Forbidden Spinjitzu, and Forbidden Spinjitzu is not involved in this short.
Instead of a ninja's usual cry of "Ninjago!" when doing Spinjitzu, Jay and Zane instead yell "Spinjitzu!"
Although this short was animated by WildBrain, Jay and Zane's Spinjitzu has an all new appearance that doesn't resemble their normal Spinjitzu look in the WildBrain episodes.
Continuity
The gag at the beginning where Gayle Gossip keeps moving in front of Clutch was previously used with a news reporter and a young fan of the ninja in "Infamous."
Additionally, when Powers mentions that he wishes all of Ninjago could see his movie, some orange smoke pours out and Nadakhan's theme plays briefly. Powers is not seen anywhere else in the short.
The samurai armor statue in the museum appears to be based on the armor from "A Time of Traitors" and "The Fall."
Reflectra uses a similar martial art as Spinjitzu, but in the shape of a diamond.
Jay is shocked by his own lightning and appears as a skeleton. A similar image was shown over ten years before this short's release, where a ninja was struck by lightning in the Ninjago Spinners card, Power Surge.
